Sirventes
A strophic troubadour song with political or moralizing content rather than love themes.
What it means
The sirventes is a strophic song of the troubadours, the Occitan poet-musicians of the Middle Ages. Unlike the love song, which sings of the beloved lady, it deals with political, moral, or satirical themes.
The word comes from Occitan “sirvent” (“servant”); a sirventes was originally a “service song,” written in the service of a lord or a cause.
Musical use
The texts take up current events: they praise or criticize rulers, comment on wars and crusades, castigate abuses in church and society, or carry on disputes with other poets. Many sirventes are contrafacta, that is, they borrow the melody and stanza form of a well-known love song and set a new text beneath it.
The songs survive mainly in manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Since the melodies are only partly preserved and medieval notation does not fix rhythm unambiguously, any modern performance is always a reconstruction.
The sirventes should be distinguished from the canso, the classic courtly love song of the troubadours, and from Minnesang, the German-language counterpart with predominantly love themes.
Performance practice
If you perform a sirventes, base the delivery on the text: set clear stresses and make the content understandable. Learn about the historical background so that allusions to people and events can be followed.